Okay, so I figured I'd try drawing a couple of portraits for units that don't seem to have any and see how they end up. Since I encountered the Rogue Mage unit line a few times (with two different sets of sprites), I thought it would be a good place to start. More to be added later, feedback is appreciated.

(image removed, see below for current version)

Last edited by BTIsaac on March 18th, 2018, 11:02 am, edited 5 times in total.

The sketches could be fine, it depepnds on what you are aiming for. These really don't look bad, and while th second guy's face needs work, there is plenty of time to work that out in the shading. Go for it.
(What techincal difficulties prevent coloring?)

The fact that out of my three computers (and tablet), the only one that supports internet browsing is too slow for photoshop. I have bad experiences with flash drives, but im might need to use one to transfer stuff between them. Also, i have one keyboard/ monitor less. But I'll get around it eventually.

It's nice to see more portraits in the game and I like your style. Here are some pointers. Hope I don't sound too harsh.

Rogue mage: The left arm (sword arms) seems to have very long forearm. Hip seems to be missing.
Shadow mage: The sword seems to be held oddly. It seems very light and the fingers don't match the angle. The other arm seems very long.
Shadow lord: The sword arm seems long and the angle of the wrist/forearm is pointing too low.

I think you could practice a bit with drawing the hip. With arm I usually aim that the elbow is about the same height as belly button and fingers are about the mid height of thighs.

Not sure what i can do about the rogue mage at this point. I'll see if i can still tweek it a bit.

The shadow mage is currently in progress. I'd like to point out that the pointy bit arount the left elbow isn't an elbow. I wanted to make the sleeve loose, so i put a few addittional lines there as an experiment to see which looks better. Those have since been erased and i moved the elbow slightly up so hopefully it's not that long anymore. Regarding the sword, by it being "too light", I'm guessing you mean his grip on the hilt is not firm enough. That along with the sword's angle isn't all that hard to fix, and I'm just about to do something about it.

If the sword arm is the only problem with the shadow lord, then that too is an easy fix, hopefully. Anyway, thanks for the feedback.

Allright, the Rogue mage line is ready. I tried to base these on both the older and newer sprites - the sword-cane is due to the Shadow Lord using a staff with a gem in the old sprite but a sword in the new one. The cloak design in particular comes from the old sprite, which I like better, as the new ones stand out a bit, what with them looking like they're made from 3d models, but I found myself liking the swirly effect on their sword which I kept for these guys.
The triangular hat on the rogue mage is due to his design being loosely inspired by 18th century european peregrine students, who incidentally were believed to be learning magic by superstitious country folk. Granted the only power they had was the ability to give accurate weather predictions, but that alone was enough to warrant a god-like status in a farming community.

These are pretty good, but one thing I'm noticing is that it's very hard to tell where the light sources are coming from. To me, it ends up making the portraits look a little flat (almost, but not quite having that 3D feel). The other is that the texturing is a little bit off to me - it seems like everything is made of leather or some sort of woolen material, even the hair and skin. So, while the cloaks look quite good for the most part, it ends up making the rest look a bit weird, since it feels like I'm looking at people made of wool!

Otherwise, I think these are quite decent. There are a couple weird portions, but as a whole, everything is shaped well and clearly you have an idea of how to shade things. I also quite like that you can see how the the mage's personality changes as he ages and grows more powerful. Good job!

Hm. I had a feeling the lighting is going to be an issue, especially with the first one (not quite 3d nothing, that left arm is pretty much dislocated). I have this habit of not keeping layers after I'm done working with them, in order to keep working size down to a minimum, and i tend to merge everything once i consider it finished. That being said, i did nothing but photomanipulations last year (didn't have anything else to work with), so i can adjust things even if they're a single layer.
@Wussel: i think you've given me a great idea how to do that.

I figured i went overboard with the texture. I don't exactly have an eye for this sort of stuff, but i can't see it with the skin and hair, although i get that the rest does look a bit odd.

Okay, i did ... something. Not sure what. I think they look less like bas reliefs and more like people now, but I don't know by how much (also slightly less saturated). Unfortunately, i won't be able to upload them until i do the next transfer in a week or two when i post the first four demons. I mean i could take a picture of the monitor, but that would be silly.

Last edited by BTIsaac on March 2nd, 2018, 7:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.